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The Future of Music and Gaming

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the world that doesn’t love music. Whether it be something for us to be happy about or something for us to cry to, music shapes not only our own view, but that of the world. It’s also not a stretch to say that many famous folks, be it professional athletes, actors, or even video game players, aspire to become musical artists at some point in time. We’ve seen it from movie stars and athletes all the time, and now it looks like the stars of the video game world are trying to make the jump as well.

Piggybacking off of his fame and worldwide recognition, Ninja - aka Tyler Blevins - of Twitch fame took the dive into music last year, partnering up with some of the world’s biggest EDM artists to release a standalone album called, wait for it…Ninjawerks. The album is totally themed around the ridiculously popular Fortnite, and is filled with features from artists like Alesso, DJ 3LAU, and Tiësto, just to name a few. Album aside, what this venture goes to show is that even even if you’re highly successful in one field, the draw of music is always strong.

When Ninja launched the project, he did so with a love of music in his heart, but also to attempt to do something that no one has yet tried, strangely. "I'm stoked about this project, first because I truly love the music, but also because I think this is another big step towards bridging the gap between music artists and gamers.” he said in an interview with EDM.com. “Our worlds keep getting more and more connected, and this feels like the next step -- hopefully, this can become the soundtrack to gaming.”

His hope - a connected world that bridges gaming and music - sounds tough to pull off, but really isn’t, once you think about it. The worlds of gaming and music are already perfectly intertwined, whether it be a killer soundtrack in an upcoming video game or your favorite streamer or YouTube star giving their advice on the latest hits. Music has been fueling games since the very beginning, but now it just might be time for those gamers to be the ones that fuel the music.

When it comes to celebrity gamers jumping into the music genre, Ninja is hardly the only one. KSI, the mega popular YouTuber turned boxer turned rapper, also has dabbled into music, perhaps with a bit more seriousness than Ninja. Someone like Ninja - who has amassed an audience in the millions - or KSI (who boasts nearly 20 million subscribers between all of his accounts) both have a level of reach that not even some musicians have. This reach, along with an audience who will be more than willing to listen and promote any songs, presents a pretty great space for any influencer to step into. All of these points of interests then beg the question, is it time for the higher ups in the music industry to begin looking at the world of gaming more seriously?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is probably yes when you look at it. For many budding artists, the hardest thing about breaking into the mainstream is finding an audience that will not only listen to you, but spread your music. Not only do YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and famous gamers in general already have all of that built in, but they also come bundled up with a platform ready to promote it all on as well. With an established audience, the reach and popularity to have their songs heard, and platforms to promote everything on, it’s actually kind of weird to think that more music companies haven’t begun searching for the next big thing in the gaming world.